


Cindersmella

by Attorney_Anon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Deviates From Canon, F/M, Fluff, Fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 13:02:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15534804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Attorney_Anon/pseuds/Attorney_Anon





	Cindersmella

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived in a quiet kingdom, a happy, pleased and wholesome family. The Murks, as they were called, lived under the prosperous and benevolent eye of the Ymous family, the resident kings and lords of their homes. The most recent generation of the Murk family was especially happy, since they had their beautiful daughter, Cindersmella, with them.

They lived together in their happiness and comfort, until one day, Miss Murk was struck by a terrible, terrible illness, one that ended up taking her life soon after. The poor young girl cried and cried and cried, having lost such a dear person to her in such a tender age.

Mister Murk, saddened by his loss, decided to do what he thought was the best for his young daughter. A few years after the death of his beloved wife, he married again, with a (at the time) beautiful woman, named Rakepick, and with her, came her two daughters, Merula and Penny. While Mister Murk was there, they enjoyed their time together, and Cindersmella felt as happy as she was when her mother was alive.

But, one day the same illness struck Mister Murk, and he soon came upon his ultimate rest. And then, the piece that permeated Cindersmella’s life was brought to a halt. The true colors of her stepmother where revealed after her husband died, with her starting to abuse, mistreat and torture poor Cindersmella, doing her best to please her own two biological daughters in detriment of the poor girl.

And as such, Cindersmella was reduced to a simple house maid, in her own home nonetheless. The intense cleaning work made her constantly tired, and in a form of greater torture, her stepmother allowed her to take a bath only once a month, using only cold water and old, greasy soap. Her smell quickly grew unbearable, and that was only one more weapon for her stepsister’s to use for the unrelenting bullying towards the poor, poor Cindersmella.

But Cindersmella remained happy, gentle and kind (in her own unique and violent way), still dreaming that one day her hopes of a better future would become true.

One day, however, a messenger from the royal family came upon the Murk residence…

“Hear ye, hear ye!” Said the messenger, a simple minded but pure hearted fellow named Barnaby. “I have a message from the king!”

“Oh, the king?” Said Rakepick. “My dears, come here please! We got a message from the king!”

As she said that, Merula and Penny, wearing their beautifully elaborated dresses, approached their mother, while poor Cindersmella kept on scrubbing the floors of the mansion, mumbling curses under her breath.

“Yes, mammy?” Said the two girls in unison.

“This young man has a message from the king from us, my dears! Maybe he finally accepted my proposal of marrying one of you two to his son.”

“Oh, of course mom.” Said Merula, giving Penny an unreasonably large smirk. “The king finally understood that I am the most beautiful girl in the kingdom, so he came to beg for my hand for his son!”

“Oh, sure, Merula. And I am a retarded donkey. Of course the king wants ME to marry his son!” Said Penny, equally smugly, looking towards her sister.

As the two of them started to look like two cats ready to fight, the herald cleaned his throat.

“Actually, the king sent me to announce that, eeh”- He then looks at a large piece of parchment that he was carrying, visibly find it difficult to read its contents. “For the… uhhhh… Royal…Birthplace? Birthday! Royal Birthday. To take place on the next…Friday! One week from now, huh. And that the p…prince Ymmy…Ymous! Prince Ymous would be looking for a bride for this wedding. And he’s looking for… the girl with the best smell in the whole kingdom?”

“Wait what?” Said the two sisters in unison.

“That’s an oddly specific request.” Said Rakepick, puzzled.

“Well, that’s what’s written in here. And the prince is kinda weird, you know, so its not really unreasonable.”

“Well, thank you, eeh, Mister Herald.”

“Its Barnaby, ma’am!”

“Yes, Barnaby. Thank you for the announcement. We’ll of course attend the festivities. Now, if you please, I want to talk with my daughters now.”

“Yes, ma’am! The pleasures all mine!” He then takes off, ready to make his announcement for another noble family.

Rakepick then gives her two daughters a smack on the forehead.

“Ouch!”

“Hey, mammy, what was that for?”

“To get you two to pay attention for once.” She says, her previously friendly expression being precluded by a serious, pretty much evil, glare. “This, you two, is a chance in a million. One of you two must, and I say, MUST win the prince’s heart and get married to him. This will be our chance to rule this country and get everything that our hearts desire!”

“Oooh” The two daughters said in unison again.

“Now, you both, go get ready, we are going shopping to prepare for the big day!” 

“Yes, mammy!” They say, happily, as they dart towards their rooms.

“And you…” She says, towards Cindersmella.

“Yes, I know. Not even think of going and ruin your chances, yada yada. I know the drill.” She says, uninterested, concentrating on her own work.

“Yes, deary. And do something about this stench, will you?” Rakepick then puts her hand towards her nose, signaling her distaste for Cindersmella’s smell.

Sighing, she gets up. “Yes, ma’am…” She says, and goes towards the bathroom, to take her monthly, useless bath.

\---------------------------

One week later, the big day had finally arrived. The two sisters were beautifully dressed, in the best clothes they could find in town (even though Merula insisted on keeping her old boots on). They both were using the most expensive and exquisite perfumes they had on their collection as well. 

Rakepick inspected her daughters time and time again; just to be sure that everything was in order. Finally satisfied, she took them towards their personal coach, and took off towards the beautiful castle in the distance.

Cindersmella, on the other hand, simply laid on her stained mattress, on her poorly decorated bedroom, contemplating the best way to kill her step mother and those stuck up pricks she had to call sisters. 

A single, white rat approached her bed then, with her giving it a simple, kind hearted smile.

“Hey little fella?” She says, offering a hand for him to sniff.

The rat cautiously approached her and sniffed, but the smell was so unbearable that the poor one fell flat, killed in an instant.

“Oh, great. Again.” Cindersmella sighs, picking the rat corpse and throwing it at the ever growing pile on her room that she named “dead friends storage.”

“I just want to have a chance to get my revenge on them…” She said, dreaming once again of all the ways she could use to defeat her unreasonably cruel step mother.

As she laid there, a large BOOM came from the garden, quickly prompting the dreaming girl to get up.

“What the hell was that?” She said, putting on her slippers and dashing towards the house’s garden.

The garden was a mess, to say the least. There was a huge crater in the middle of it, and most of the plants, previously well kept by the girl where either destroyed or in flames. 

But what weirded out her the most wasn’t the destruction: it was a weirdly dressed old man, wearing long, silvery robes and spectacles, with a pointy hat to booth.

“Ouch, my back, my freaking back… should apparate like McGonagall suggested…” Said the old man, getting up slowly while brushing his shoulders.

“Wh-who are you?” Said Cindersmella, taken aback by the unusual sight.

Noticing the girl, the old man gave her a ear-to-ear smile, and approached her with a speed that was mostly unexpected for a man of that age.

“Oh, deary me! Its good to finally meet you, Miss Cindersmella!” Said him, shaking her hand with enthusiasm, but quickly taking back his hand to scrub it when he noticed her smell. “Sorry about the garden, but we have a lot of work today, its your big day after all!”

“Who, wait, what? First answer me, please. Who are you, why are you here, how do you know my name and what did you do to my bloody garden?!”

“Ohoho, yes yes. I believe some explanation is in order then. My name is Dumbledore, and im your fairy godmother!” As the old man said that, he gave her a twirl, as he picked a long wand from his robes.

Cindersmella gave him a look of pure disgust. “I don’t think I have a godmother, and you’re certainly not a fairy.”

“Oh, but I am you godmother! Well, god father, to be more exact, but godmother sounds better. And I am a fairy, look!” He said, giving his wand a swish, making sparkles appear in the air, forming the world ‘HOWDY’

Cindersmella was even more confused. “Okay, okay. Lets say you are my fairy thingamajig or something like that. Why are you here then? What do you want?”

“Im here, my dear”- He said, giving her a smirk. “To give you the tools for your revenge.”

As he said that, a tinge of interest formed inside Cindersmella.

“Revenge? So, you’re gonna help me kill my stepmother then?” She said, getting exited for once.

“Oh, wow, no. Calm down a little. We’re just going to humiliate her and your sisters, that’s all, nothing that extreme.”

“Oh.” She said, clearly disappointed.

“Ahem, anyway. I thought it would be pretty interesting if you managed to beat them at their own game, you know? So, what do you think about getting the prince to fall for you?”

“Ha, like that’s gonna happen.”

“Oh, but it will happen, deary. You just need to ask.”

“Well, really? You can make me prettier than them?”

“Yes, and im sure the prince will be head over heels for you in no time!”

“Huh, that’s sounds dandy and all, but…” She said, rubbing her chin. “There’s a catch, right?”

“Well… yes and no. You see, it wont cost you anything, HOWEVER…”

“However what? And why did you scream the last wo-”

“The spell’s will only last a day.” Interrupting her, he picks a weirdly shaped pocket watch from his robes. “Its now 6:30 PM, so I can make the spell last until midnight.”

“Oh, wow, only 5:30 hours? You must be a pretty weak fairy then.”

“Nope, its just the union rules, we fairies cant make spells that last more than a day, its ‘cheating’ or something like that.”

“A union for fairies? Really?”

“Yep.”

“Well. Okay. This is all pretty weird, still, but I think im gonna roll with it for now. Not like I have anything better to do today, anyway.”

“Splendid! Now, just sign here then, and we’ll start right away.” He gives her a contract and pen, which she quickly signs without even reading it.

“Now what?” Asked her, eager to start.

“Now we do the magic.” He then picks his wand once again, more sparkles coming from it. 

“First, a coach, for the transportation of our lovely princess. What to use, what to use…Aha!” He the points his wand towards a smashed pumpkin on the ground. 

“Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” He says, as the pumpkin slowly starts to change, taking finally the form of a finely elaborated coach, who had the form of a green skull, with green flames on its sides.

“Oh, its lovely!” Said Cindersmella, her eyes beaming with happiness.

“Uuh, right. Forgot that this thing takes the preferences of the wish taker into account. Oh well.” He then starts to wander around again. “Now, we need the horses, and of course, the coachman. Do you have any animal friends, my dear?”

“Animal friends? Why would I have animal friends?”

“Every princess has animal friends, dear.”

“Well, I don’t.”

Sighing deeply, Dumbledore scratches his head. “Don’t you have anything that resembles something alive, at least? Something that I can use.”

“Oh, I actually think so. I’ll be right back.” She then dashes towards the house.

A few seconds later, she returns. Dumbledore then smiles towards the girl, who was carrying something on her arms.

“You did find something! Now I just need to- WHAT IS THAT!”

“What? Its just a friend, like you asked.” She then holds 4 dead rats in front of her, a few of them already decomposing.

“Good lord you have problems, girl. Either way, this will do, or at least I hope so. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” He then swings his wand again, the dead animals transforming themselves into 3 horses and a single coachman, all of them skeletons as well.

“This looks great!” Said Cindersmella again, ever so happy.

“Yes, yes. HOWEVER, we have the finishing touches now. Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” He now points the wand towards Cindersmella, her previously shabby and torn clothes being replaced by a beautifully crafted dress, black in color. Her hair was also tied up in a chignon, wrapped in a single skull shaped brooch.

“Wow.” Cindersmella admires her appearance on the garden’s pond, giving herself a twirl. “Is this really me?”

“Yes, yes, my dear. With a little magic, anything is possible. But alas, one last thing: Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!” And once again, he points the wand towards her, but besides the colorful sparkles tame came from it, nothing changed on her.

“Uh, what did you do?”

“Ah, I did the coup de grace, my dear. Your smell, that I believed that most people felt unpleasant (myself included), turned now into the most pleasant smell that a person could feel!”

She then sniffs her arm, a quizzical look on her face. “I don’t smell any different.”

“Well, it’s the same smell, really. I just used my magic to make people think that it is good.”

“Darn, that’s convenient.”

“That’s magic for you, deary. Anyway.” He picks her hand and opens the door for the coach. “Its time for you to go, my child. But remember, after midnight, the spell will be broken, so be sure to win the prince’s heart before it!”

“I’ll try. And thanks, godmother.”

“You’re welcome, my child. Now go, and enjoy the night!”

The coach takes off, and as it disappeared into the night, Dumbledore’s smile is replaced by a tired frown.

“Why do I always have to take the weird ones?” He says, as he flicks his wand and goes back home.

\-------------------------

At the ball, Prince Ymous looked uninterested as ever.

“Snape, did any decent girl appeared so far?” He asked his trusty advisor, Snape, the royal magician.

“If you looked around instead of sitting idly by, ‘Prince’.” He said, in his usual scornful tone. “Im pretty sure you’d find a ‘decent girl’, or at least one suitable for your tastes.”

“Nah, its easier to ask you to find one for me. After all, you just need to flick that wand thingy of yours and I can get a free sample of any girls smell!”

Snape signs deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why am I stuck with this degenerate?”

As the ball goes, dozens of possible suitors appear for the prince, with Snape “sampling” their smells for him, who then sniffs them and discards with an uninterested look. 

Rakepick, accompanied with her daughters, tries to talk with the prince, but is quickly stopped by Snape’s visage.

“Why are you blocking the way, servant? Me and my daughters need to talk with the prince.” She says, forcing a smile, her eyes twitching in anger.

“The prince explicitly said that he doesn’t want to talk with any woman he deems ‘unpleasant’ today, madam. And im afraid he put you and your daughters in the ‘unpleasant’ list.”

“Unpleasant for what?” Asked Penny.

“Yeah, what did we do to be deemed unpleasant?”

“He said…Ugh…He said you all smell like rotting trash.”

“What?!” said the sisters in unison

“That’s preposterous! My daughters only use the most exquisite perfumes produced in the entire kingdom, what is this prince thinking?!”

“I’d like to know myself…” Snape mumbles to himself.

As Rakepick and her daughters discuss with an ever annoyed Snape, Cindersmella finally enters the ball.

The entirety of the attendees stop on their tracks, as the black clad girl makes her way towards the prince. With their mouths agape, Rakepick, Merula and Penny stare at her, as the prince quickly gets up, his eyes burning, having found the “smell” that he was looking for.

“Oh, m’lady!” Said the prince, holding both of her hands on his. “You’re the most beautiful and most pleasantly smelling woman that I ever laid my eyes and my nose on! Would you please give me a dance?”

“Hey hey, a little bit too quick there, chap.” Cindersmella says, but her disgusted face quickly morphs into a devilish smirk once she sees her stepmother and her step sisters. “But on a second thought, sure. Lets dance.” She the guides him, the two of them dancing beautifully (with her on command, obviously).

As the night went on, the prince was already head over heels for her, and even if his weird preferences made her weary of him, she started to lose herself a little and enjoy his company.

But as the music slowed down, and the two of them started to get more intimate, Cindersmella noticed the clock tower of the church near the castle quickly approaching midnight.

The happy smile that the prince had during all the night started to change into a quizzical frown, as he smelled something he deemed “unpleasant”.

“Oh, great.” Thought Cindersmella. “I have to get out of here, quickly.”

“Are you feeling this? Almost feels like something’s rotting.” The prince says, looking around the ball room to locate the bad smell.

“Uh, I do, I do! I think its coming from those girls right there.” She then points towards her stepmother and sisters, who were all sitting around, seething with anger after having their plans thwarted.

“Oh, yeah. They smelled really bad when they arrived.”

“Well, go ask them to leave, my prince, I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Yes, my beauty. I’ll be right back!” He said, approaching the three annoyed woman.

As soon as he turns his back, Cindersmella dashes towards the door. Her dress starts to change as she goes down the stairs, turning back into her old stained clothes. She then hops on her skull carriage, prompting it to go as fast as it can.

The prince then goes back to the dance floor, looking around, trying to find his missing sweetheart.

After a few minutes, he commands his guards to search the entire castle for her.

Snape then approaches the prince, who was sitting on the stairs of his castle, devastated.

“Whats the matter, prince? You seemed to be enjoying the ball with that girl so far.”

“And I was! But she just… disappeared when I wasn’t looking. And I didn’t even catch her name!”

“Well, even if I hate myself for this, I did a little favor for you.”

“You did?”

“Yes.” He then shows him a single bottle, who apparently contained the smell of that beautiful girl that the prince had fallen in love.

Giving him a smile for ear to ear, the prince knew what he had to do.

\-----------------------------

A few days later, Cindersmella was overworked as humanly possible. Her stepmother, after her plans were destroyed, abused Cindersmella even more, just to vent her frustrations.

As she worked on cleaning the toilets by the umpteenth time that day, she noticed a single, pink bottle among her cleaning tools.  
“What is this?” She said, as she picked it. The label had written in it “Fairy’s smell.”

She then opened it, and as she did, the contents spilled on her, as if the bottle was enchanted.

“What the-?” She asked for herself, but she was interrupted in her thoughts as the royal herald appeared in the front door, screaming in his usual tone.

“Hear ye hear ye! Make way for the royal prince of the Ymous house, prince Anon!” And as Barnaby the herald said that, the prince entered the Murk household.

Rakepick quickly appeared, her smile trying to be pleasant (but failing miserably once she noticed Snape alongside the prince).  
“Oh, prince. It’s a pleasure to have you here! What brings you to our humble household?”

“I am looking for a certain girl, madam. A girl that danced with me on my ball last week.”

“Oh, it was probably one of my daughters then! Just a moment, if you please, I’ll bring them here.” She then goes towards her daughters bedrooms, as they were slouching there ever since the day of the ball.

“This is probably not the right one, again.” Complained the prince.

“It was your idea of looking around the entire kingdom for that one girl, my liege. Shape yourself up and prepare to search until we find her.”

“Yeah yeah.” The prince shakes his hand, looking uninterested, as the woman and her daughters appeared.

“I believe one of them is the girl that your majesty is looking for.” She points towards the two girls, who were trying their best to impress the prince with their smiles, pose and dresses.

“Snape. The sample.” 

“Here, prince.” He then gives the prince the bottle, who he then gives a quick sniff, and compares the smell with the two girls.  
“Hey, hey! Why are you sniffing me?!” Asked Merula.

“Personal space, personal space!” Said Penny.

“Shush it, you two!” Said Rakepick, with muder on her voice. “You can sniff them as much as you want, prince!”

“Nah, don’t need it. They’re not the one.” He said, clearly annoyed thanks to another failure.

“Let us go to the next house then.” Said Snape.

But as they were leaving the house, the prince stopped right on his track, as his keen nose noticed a pleasant tinge, one he missed dearly.

He dashed towards the back of the house, as one single girl was organizing her cleaning tools there. She looked shaggy, tired, her clothes patched up in most places, but as he looked, she seemed the most beautiful (and most pleasantly smelling) woman that he ever saw in his life.

He then approached her slowly, and Cindersmella noticed him. They both got closer and closer, their hands eventually intertwining, their faces approaching, almost touching themselves…

\--------------------------

“WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!” Blared Ismelda’s wand. That’s stupid waking spell always destroyed her mornings.

“Another weird dream, huh.” She said, scrubbing her eyes and getting up from her bed. The dream was pleasant, it made her feel warm inside, but getting waken up right on the kiss always made her mad.

She then started her usual morning routine, taking a quick, cold bath, brushing her hair until it was perfectly positioned in the right side of her face and scrubbing her teeth. She then sniffed herself, and perhaps because of the dream, she opened her old trunk under her bed, and picked up a small, pink bottle that her dad gave her many years ago, “Fairy’s smell”, it said.

Without thinking much, she used the perfume on herself, feeling happy about how she smelled today, and then rushed towards the great hall for breakfast.

\----------------------------

“We have potions again today, huh.” Said Ismelda’s friend, Merula.

“Great, I really have to ask a few questions to professor Snape.” Said Penny, the ever so happy Hufflepuff girl, and also one of Ismelda’s friend.

“It will probably be boring as usual.” Said Ismelda, looking uninterested towards her new edition of “Goth Wizards” that came earlier on the mail.

As the three girls chatted, two of their other friends entered the hall and sat alongside them on the Slytherin table: Barnaby, the meat head (but a really nice guy once you got to know him) and Anon, a Ravenclaw boy.

As Anon sat down, Ismelda quickly ducked behind her magazine, her ears burning red as she remembered her dream. 

Her friends chatted for a while as they ate, with Ismelda giving her usual uninterested responses, avoiding eye contact with Anon at all costs.

As they started to get up to leave the hall, Anon waited a bit to go with Ismelda (which made the girl even more nervous).

“Hey, Ismy.” Said Anon, calling her by her usual nickname.

“Y-yes, Ymous?” She asked, but as she moved her face towards him, he put his face way too close to her neck and gave her a sniff, almost making her fall down on the floor.

“H-hey! What was that for?” She asked, clearly nervous.

“Did you change your perfume?” He asked, nonchalantly.

“N-no, I didn’t. Why?”

“Well, I just thought that you smelled really good today. Like, really good.”

“Uhuh.” She said, almost picking her wand in nervousness, but internally screaming of happiness thanks to the compliment.

“Welp, I had a dream last night, and uh… ah, forget it” Anon said, looking slightly nervous. “I have transfiguration now, so… I’ll talk with you later, ok?”

“Alright, I guess.” Said Ismelda, regaining a little bit of composure.

“Good, it’s a date then. See you later.” He said, going towards McGonagall’s class.

Ismelda then stayed the entire day with a big, goofy (and for her, unusual), smile on her face, extremely happy with what anon said to her.


End file.
